Page 19 - Ramanuja and Equality Book.pmd

Equality in right to worship

Temple entry to all: During his stay in Melkote, Ramanuja saw
that devotees from certain sections of society were not allowed
inside the temple to worship due to social norms. He was very
disturbed by this practice. He brought about a change to this old
practice and paved the way for allowing any devotee, regardless
of background, to worship the Lord.

Ramanuja, enabling everyone with a desire to come and worship the Lord
Everyone has the right to worship a personal deity: Often, we
wonder how we can really serve the Lord every day, and how
we can feel His presence in our lives every day. Ramanuja pro-
vided the answer and gave a straight forward way to follow this.
Ramanuja brought out the teachings of the Agama (manuals for
deity worship), simplified and systematized personal worship
of the deity (vigraha) form of the Lord at everyone’s home. He
spread the message that anyone with interest and devotion was
eligible for initiation into the Sri Vaishnava tradition. Anyone with
any status or from any section of society, can get initiated if they
expressed interest. Anyone who is initiated is taught how to per-

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